Review: ‘King Kong Lives’

Film leads off with the previous [1976] pic's closing footage. Advancing to the present, the giant ape is stunningly revealed to be breathing via life-support systems, with Linda Hamilton heading a surgical team preparing to give him an artificial heart.

Film leads off with the previous [1976] pic’s closing footage. Advancing to the present, the giant ape is stunningly revealed to be breathing via life-support systems, with Linda Hamilton heading a surgical team preparing to give him an artificial heart.

Brian Kerwin enters from far-off Borneo, where he has stumbled on a female Kong. He delivers her to the Hamilton group so her blood can be used for the heart transplant operation.

In portraying an Indiana Jones-type figure Kerwin strains for plausibility and film swiftly begins to lose some early credibility. His tough jungle ways are unconvincingly transformed into sensitive concern for both animals [created by Carlo Rambaldi].

Meantime, the proximity of the two Kongs prompts these primates to discover what comes naturally. This would prove to be the moment when director John Guillermin loses all control of the pic. Mindless chase then proceeds pell mell for the rest of the film, with the army in hot pursuit.